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30 HAMILTON SPECTATOR Saturday April 25 2015 www.spec.com.au Champion breeders claim more success REX MARTINICH FROM their farm south of Glenthompson, Joe Spicer and his partner Sharon Barry have been taking the Australian Yard Dog Association by storm, winning their fourth Australian Championship since 2005. Mr Spicer is a lamb and SHEARING PLANT & HANDPIECE SERVICE • All models • On farm service or our workshop George & Dorothy Logan 4 Millman Street, Hamilton Phone (03) 5572 3742 Mobile 0427 723 742 beef producer, yard dog breeder and contractor providing dogs for stock work, who this month took out the top prize in a nationwide test of dog breeding, training and handling. Mr Spicer’s dogs are raised from birth at his property, ‘Inverdale’, and in 2005 one of his dogs broke a 20-year Victorian trophy drought at the Australian Championships. Now his 10-year-old male dog ‘Go Getta Brue’ has taken home a second win, which has placed Mr Spicer equal second in the league table for total awards won. “The record is five (championships), myself and another handler are on four at the moment,” Mr Spicer said. Succession Planning and other fi nancial services FOR FREE INDEPENDENT AND CONFIDENTIAL ASSISTANCE CONTACT ... Rural Financial Counselling Service Victoria Wimmera South West Inc Ph: 1300 735 578 or via www.wswrcs.com.au Supported by the Australian & Victorian Governments EWE PREGNANCY SCANNING à 10 years’ experience à Vacancies Available à Automatic 3 way draft à Wet / Dry / Single / Multiple / Late Please email or call me with your joining dates to ensure optimum scanning results CLOVERNOOK SCANNING SERVICES Sam Plush 0429 061 500 sjw.plush@bigpond.com GLENTHOMPSON lamb and beef producer and yard dog breeder Joe Spicer with his 10-year-old dog ‘Go Getta Brue’, which won the Australian Yard Dog Association Championship this month. Photo: JUDY DE MAN. MIDFIELD DIRECT Committed to the farming community Convenient for you Consistent pricing and service TOP PRICES Cows Friesian $1513 Friesian $1505 Friesian $1499 Friesian $1497 Beef $1553 Beef $1531 Beef $1509 Beef $1495 Bulls Friesian $1941 Friesian $1933 Friesian $1904 Beef $2197 Beef $2101 Beef $2093 THE TEAM Jeshua Ross 0429 977 551 Liam Finnigan 0429 860 128 Kevin Robertson 0429 164 018 150422jd017 “The championship has been dominated by New South Wales for 30 years, so it’s great to see Victoria flying the flag.” To win a yard dog championship, a working dog and its handler have to guide sheep through mock forcing yards, a drenching race, a draft and then load an unload them from a trailer. “You load the trailer then unload from the same end, which is often quite difficult as you need to be able to turn all the sheep around,” Mr Spicer said. Unlike on a real farm, the dog handler can’t intervene if something goes wrong. “Quite often that makes it more difficult because we actually stand where we want the sheep to go through and we have to get them to go past,” Mr Spicer said. “We can’t help the dog without loss of points.” This year’s championship was held at Ross in the Tasmanian midlands and Mr Spicer said it would have been a “magnificent holiday” even if he didn’t take home the trophy. Mr Spicer likes to use a different training philosophy for his breeding and stock work contracting, which was evident in how he can silence a kennel of working dogs with a single yelled command. “We want the dog to work for and with us and to do that we need to understand how the dog thinks and work with the dog’s natural ability,” he said. “There’s the old-school approach: ‘go and do it or if not I’ll shoot you’ “Now we take your young dogs to school before we take them to work and give them a bit of an education in the basic grounding and build a rapport.” Mr Spicer also credits help from his partner for his success. “She’s a great help as at the Championships, unfortunately because of the way they structure their draw and because I had seven dogs in the first round and five in the finals, I had to run four dogs in a row,” he said. “She was handing me dogs (during the trials) and also the way she runs the field days. “She reckons I love the dogs more than her, but that’s not true.” Steve Farley 0438 655 564 FARMERS PLEASE NOTE: Please provide email addresses on declaration forms so we can supply results. ONE CALL, GET IT ALL Save time and money with our market direct service for sheep, lamb and cattle. Simply call us on 0429 179 243 or contact one of our fi eld offi cers. Proud supporter of: Powercor Business of the Year Since 1975 2013 Neville Guthridge 0418 503 002 Steven Smith 0488 095 425 Pat Smith 0407 680 584 Livestock administration: Peter Sheen, Louise Martelloni or Jess Strange 5563 4444 SDD1146911 OJK0625123 SBE1146567